Tara Tanaka (flickr site here, Vimeo site here) has produced a very short (12 second) video of a Northern Flicker. Have a look, preferably on its Vimeo site in high definition. Her notes:
Taken from my blind this morning – probably the best view I’ve ever had of a Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker [Colaptes auratus]. I had one land briefly in the window of my blind, but the view was nothing like this.
Tara added this later:
it’s not often you get to see Flickers so close. You can tell this is a female by the lack of a black moustache.
Very good. Flickers are extremely spooky and maddeningly difficult to photograph.
Very cool. Thanks!
They used to come and feed on the deck outside our window on Pender Island, BC. Their call when flying through the forest is remarkable, almost like a gibbon hooting.
We have a love/hate relationship with the Flickers here in Colorado. A beautiful bird as shown in this excellent video. The holes they love to drill in the side of the house not so beautiful :o(
We certainly have them here in Iowa and I feed them along with all the woodpeckers. Have never seen any drilling in the houses. Maybe because we have lots of tree for them to work on but never see it. One of the houses had wood shingles at one time and the squirrels did a little damage there but nothing serious.
A favorite bird of mine. It has a looping, skipping flight path. A quick beat and coast…
Yes, I like that sinusoidal flight path too. Fast moving, lightening fast burst of wing beats at the bottom of the wave, coast up to the peak and then back down, lightening fast burst of wing beats . . .
+1
Flickers are terrific…that was a really cool close-up, bravo! 12 seconds is a long time for a flicker to sit still.
Last week I saw 3 different pairs of pied (I think) woodpeckers converge on a huge cottonwood. One pair seemed to call the other pair and the two called in the last pair. I’d never seen woodpeckers flock like this. They didn’t stay for long, and alas, no camera!
Short and sweet!
What a treat, Tara!
Thanks everyone! So happy to be able to share this close-up view. I was sitting at my computer yesterday and had a Pine Warbler on suet 3′ from my window — 6′ from where I sat. Even with my 10x binoculars, I didn’t have as close a view as I did of the Flicker with the camera.